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"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague." -Cicero

China Poised To Play Debt Card – For U.S. Land

Could real estate on American soil owned by China be set up as
“development zones” in which the communist nation could establish
Chinese-owned businesses and bring in its citizens to the U.S. to work? That’s part of an evolving proposal Beijing has been developing
quietly since 2009 to convert more than $1 trillion of U.S debt it owns
into equity.Under the plan, China would own U.S. businesses, U.S. infrastructure
and U.S. high-value land, all with a U.S. government guarantee against
loss.Yu Qiao, a professor of economics in the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsighua University in Beijing, proposed in 2009 a plan for the U.S. government to guarantee foreign investments in the United States.WND has reliable information that the Bank of China, China’s central
bank, has continued to advance the plan to convert China’s holdings of
U.S. debt into equity owned by China in the U.S.The Obama administration, under the plan, would grant a financial
guarantee as an inducement for China to convert U.S. debt into Chinese
direct equity investment. China would take ownership of successful U.S.
corporations, potentially profitable infrastructure projects and
high-value U.S. real estate.The plan would be designed to induce China to resume lending to the U.S. on a nearly zero-interest basis.However, converting Chinese debt to equity investments in the United
States could easily add another $1 trillion to outstanding Obama
administration guarantees issued in the current economic crisis.As of November 2012, China owned $1.17 trillion in U.S. Treasury securities, according to U.S. Department of Treasury and Federal Reserve Board calculations published Jan. 16.Concerned about the unrestrained growth in U.S. debt under the Obama administration, China has reduced by 97 percent its holdings in short-term U.S. Treasury bills. China’s holding of $573.7 billion in August 2008,
prior to the massive bank bailouts and stimulus programs triggered by
the collapse in the U.S. mortgage market, dwindled to $5.96 billion by
March 2011.Treasury bills are short-term debt that matures in one year or less,
sold to finance U.S. debt. Holdings of Treasury bills are included in
the $1.17 trillion of total Treasury securities owned by China as of
November 2012.In addition to a national debt in excess of $16 trillion, the U.S. government in 2010 faced over $70 trillion in unfunded obligations,
including Social Security and Medicare benefits scheduled to be paid
retiring baby boomer retirees in the coming decades, with unfunded
obligations showing no sign of being reduced with Congress at a deadlock
over reducing federal government spending.Yu Qiao observed that if the U.S. dollar collapsed under the weight
of proposed Obama administration trillion-dollar budget deficits into
the foreseeable future, holders of U.S. debt would face substantial
losses that the Financial Times estimated “would devastate Asians’
hard-earned wealth and terminate economic globalization.”“The basic idea is to turn Asian savings, China’s in particular, into
real business interests rather than let them be used to support U.S.
over-consumption,” Yu Qiao wrote, reflecting themes commonly suggested
by Chinese government officials. “While fixed-income securities are
vulnerable to any fall in the value of the dollar, equity claims on
sound corporations and infrastructure projects are at less risk from a
currency default,” he continued.The problem is that, in a struggling U.S. economy, China does not
want to trade its investment in U.S. Treasury debt securities, with
their inherent risk of dollar devaluation, for equally risky investments
in U.S. corporations and infrastructure projects.“But Asians do not want to bear the risk of this investment because
of market turbulence and a lack of knowledge of cultural, legal and
regulatory issues in U.S. businesses,” he stressed. “However if a
guarantee scheme were created, Asian savers could be willing to invest
directly in capital-hungry U.S. industries.”Yu Qiao’s plan included four components:

China would negotiate with the U.S. government to create a “crisis
relief facility,” or CRF. The CRF “would be used alongside U.S. federal
efforts to stabilize the banking system and to invest in
capital-intensive infrastructure projects such as high-speed railroad
from Boston to Washington, D.C.

China would pool a portion of its holdings of Treasury bonds under
the CFR umbrella to convert sovereign debt into equity. Any CFR funds
that were designated for investment in U.S. corporations would still be
owned and managed by U.S. equity holders, with the Asians holding
minority equity shares “that would, like preferred stock, be
convertible.”

The U.S. government would act as a guarantor, “providing a sovereign
guarantee scheme to assure the investment principal of the CRF against
possible default of targeted companies or projects”.

The Federal Reserve would set up a special account to supply the
liquidity the CRF would require to swap sovereign debt into industrial
investment in the United States.

“The CRF would lessen Asians’ concern about implicit default of
sovereign debts caused by a collapsing dollar,” Yu Qiao concluded. “It
would cost little and help the U.S. by channeling funds to business
investment.”